CANSACC: Pan-Canadian Action Plan for Cancer Surgery

Thank you to CANSACC members for your leadership in developing the Pan-Canadian Action Plan for Cancer Surgery. The COVID situation has certainly made the timing of it challenging.

In the coming weeks, we will also be sharing with you disease-site specific surgical data related to various indicators to promote quality improvement discussions in jurisdictions.

Thank you,

Christian Finley

Posted 2020-09-02

CPAC: New guideline recommends against routine screening for esophageal adenocarcinoma in patients with chronic GERD

CPAC: New guideline recommends against routine screening for esophageal adenocarcinoma in patients with chronic GERD

A new guideline from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care strongly recommends physicians in Canada not routinely screen patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) for esophageal adenocarcinoma and precursor conditions. Clinicians who regularly refer patients with chronic GERD but without alarm symptoms to be screened with upper endoscopy may want to stop, given the many needs facing the health system.

“The Canada Partnership Against Cancer (Partnership) supports the Task Force’s recommendations against screening for esophageal cancer among people with reflux disease, and particularly their call for more research into new and effective screening alternatives. We need to improve outcomes for this deadly cancer,” said Dr. Craig Earle, vice-president, Cancer Control at the Partnership. “The Task Force has once again done rigorous analysis of the available evidence and provided clear recommendations that balance the potential for patient benefit with harms and costs to our health care system.”

This recommendation does not apply to patients with alarm symptoms for esophageal cancer, such as difficulty or pain swallowing, recurrent vomiting, unexplained weight loss, anemia, loss of appetite, gastrointestinal bleeding, or to those who have already been diagnosed with Barrett esophagus.

The College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Nurse Practitioner Association of Canada have endorsed the guideline.

Related materials:

Posted 2020-07-06

CPSI: Advocacy and support for use of a Surgical Safety Checklist

Canadian Patient Safety Initiative: Advocacy and support for use of a Surgical Safety Checklist

On behalf of the Surgical Safety Checklist (SSCL) working group chair- Dr. Giuseppe Papia and the SSCL working group, we are distributing:

CPSI has extended its sincere appreciation for the Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons’ endorsement of the Position Statement supporting a Surgical Safety Checklist.

 Posted 2018-09-29

CPAC: Pan-Canadian Standards for Thoracic Surgery

Pan-Canadian Standards for Thoracic Surgery

The Pan-Canadian Standards for Thoracic Surgery have been publicly released. Collective efforts over the past year have culminated into a comprehensive document for thoracic surgery that can be tailored according to local health systems. This document highlights a number of key areas, including surgeon training and certification, human resource requirements to ensure timely access to care, the availability of required equipment and services, quality assurance processes and measurement capabilities. By ensuring compliance with the standards, health systems and facilities can utilize this information to organize care in a way that maximizes patient outcomes while maintaining reasonable access to care.

It is hoped that this document can be used to guide conversations with decision makers to elevate and standardize thoracic surgical care across Canada We look forward to working in partnership with CATS, as we move forward with implementation plans for the standards.

Christian Finley

Expert Lead, Clinical Measures

Canadian Partnership Against Cancer